Bernie Sanders plans to spearhead legislation on key Trump proposal

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said he will push forward new legislation to cap credit card interest rates to 10%, which is something President-elect Donald Trump said he wanted to do temporarily on the campaign trail. 

“During the recent campaign Donald Trump proposed a 10% cap on credit card interest rates. Great idea. Let’s see if he supports the legislation that I will introduce to do just that,” Sanders wrote on X. 

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While campaigning in New York before winning the election against Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump threw his support behind a “temporary cap on credit card interest rates.” 

“We’re going to cap it at around 10%. We can’t let them make 25 and 30%.”

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Trump framed the temporary policy as something to help Americans as they “catch up.” 

The amount of credit card debt held by Americans rose to $1.17 trillion in the third quarter of 2024, per MarketWatch. 

According to data from Lending Tree, the average credit card interest rate in December was 24.43%, MarketWatch also reported. 

Regarding whether the president-elect still intends to implement this policy after he debuted it in September, transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital in a statement, “The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail. He will deliver.”

Sanders’ office did not answer whether the cap in his legislation would be temporary, as Trump said, when asked for comment by Fox News Digital. 

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While Trump backed such a temporary cap, Republicans have often opposed policies that could be harmful to businesses and restrict the availability of credit cards. 

In fact, top Trump ally and incoming Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., was a top opponent of efforts during the Biden administration to crack down on late fees and further regulate the credit card industry. 

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Earlier this year, Scott explained that the administration’s rule to cap credit card late fees would “decrease the availability of credit card products for those who need it most, raise rates for many borrowers who carry a balance but pay on time, and increase the likelihood of late payments across the board.”

Scott’s office declined to comment on a potential 10% interest rate cap.